The Dairy industry and Livestock marketing yards continue to give the beef industry a black eye.
Ron Torell
University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Livestock Specialist

The Dairy industry and Livestock marketing yards continue to give the beef industry a black eye. This has to stop. Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) will keep delivering these videos as long as the dairy industry continues to deliver downer cows to auction yards and auction yards continue to ignore their responsibility in not accepting non-ambulatory animals. HSUS said they have not seen any non-ambulatory beef cows or have seen any animal abuse to beef cows.

Timely culling is the key. Send these cows to auction before every ounce of protein is wrung from their body. Our regional BQA educational and certification efforts need to be expanded and concentrate on the Dairy segment. We need to add a section to our regional BQA manual specific to the timely culling of cattle and pound this point into the heads of black and white beef producers.

Go to http://www.bqa.wsu.edu/ to view the current western regional Beef Quality Assurance guidelines. To become BQA certified contact me for details.

Changing Expectations In The U.S. Economy
Derrell S. Peel. OSU Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist

The shock waves of dramatically higher energy prices are reverberating through every corner of the U.S. and are likely to continue for the foreseeable future. The impacts are obvious in some regards and much more subtle in others, but are widespread and only just beginning to be manifested in many cases. There is a growing cry of hysteria-tinged voices asking how we will survive in a world of high energy prices.

A change such as this ultimately must lead to a change in the expectations of all consumers and producers. This process takes time and involves several stages. The first stage is one of assuming the impact is a short run shock that will soon pass. Consumers make no or very minor temporary adjustments in spending habits and accept the fact the costs are higher and the money does not go as far. Producers accept smaller returns and margins but make no significant changes in the production process.

At some point in time, producers and consumers reach stage two where the change has not passed and it is no longer possible to avoid making more significant changes. Consumers, for example, may still have the gas guzzler but make changes in driving habits and recognize that they may want to buy a different vehicle when the time comes. Consumers begin to significantly alter eating habits by eating out less and changing food purchasing choices. Producers make more significant efforts to find cheaper inputs and manage production costs. However, in stage two, neither consumers nor producers have fundamentally changed their lifestyles nor ways of doing business. It appears to me that many consumers and producers in the U.S. are in or very near stage two at this time.

Stage three occurs when consumers and producers stop asking how they can continue with the status quo (assuming the change is permanent) and begin asking how we fundamentally change what and how we produce and consume. It does not appear that many producers or consumers have reached stage three yet. Consider the reluctance of the airline industry to fundamentally reassess a business model that clearly is not working. For the most part we are still asking how to keep doing what we have done rather than asking how we can use an entirely new approach to do things. The process of long run adjustments to our economy does not begin until we change the long-run expectations of consumers and producers.

These adjustments are not easy or quick. Many will take up to a decade and some much more than that. The suburban-sprawl, car culture that is so dear to us in the U.S. has been developing continuously since the 1950s. For example, we do not have nor can we effectively use things like public transportation to a much greater degree in the short run, even if our expectations have changed enough to make us willing to use it. However, over time, we may recognize the need to invest in more and different public transportation infrastructure and adapt it to work in our suburban landscape. This and a multitude of other changes have yet to be recognized let alone embraced. The process will be painful, frightening and threatening for many people but like all changes will also offer a host of new opportunities previously unimagined by both producers and consumers.

Big Al's Texas Rubs, BBQ Rubs & Seasonings

Al placed this National ad today on www.RuralAds.com in the Country Store category. A National Ad runs in all states. The ad will run for 3 months at a cost of only $35. If you are selling a product for many, you should check out our country store.

I can almost taste the BBQ.

Click here to see the whole ad

U.S. May Free Up More Land for Corn Crops
By DAVID STREITFELD, NY Times

CHICAGO — Signs are growing that the government may allow farmers to plant crops on millions of acres of conservation land, while a chorus of voices is also pleading with Washington to cut requirements for ethanol production.

Click to read the whole article

Got this note from an old friend Roy Leidahl.
Roy writes newsletters for areas of the ag industry.

" I just spent two days listening to experts in grain, dairy, energy, technical trading and policy. The only consensus view was volatility."

Click on this link to visit Roy's website

The Webbers Falls, OK FFA chapter placed a FREE State Calendar Ad on www.RuralCalendar.com for their "Midnight Madness on the River Swine Jackpot."

You can do the same for an event you need to promote.

Click here to see the latest ads on RuralCalendar.com

As flooding continues, meat processors ask EPA to suspend ethanol mandate
By Janie Gabbett on 6/18/2008 for Meatingplace.com

As rising waters continued to breach levees and corn prices topped $8.00 on the Chicago Board of Trade, a group of agribusiness and environmental groups are once again calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to revisit its ethanol fuel mandate.

Meatingplace.com

Ev and Dane, one of our grandsons, went for a walk on the trail in the park behind our house this morning. I got this photo when he was standing still. That doesn't happen very often.

Grand Kids are grrrreat!

The last few days, when I have seen on TV all the corn fields under water, I remembered "checked corn". I don't know if that is the correct name, but that is what my dad called it on our farm. I do remember someone calling it "wire corn".

Here is a description I found on the internet.
They used a system called "checked corn." They planted the hills at the same intervals in each direction, usually 40 inches. If the planter was running from north to south, a wire was strung with knots on it every 40 inches. When the planter hit the knot, the seeds dropped. This way, the hills came out in a checkerboard pattern – one hill every 40 inches in all directions. The reason for "checked corn" was that the farmer could run a cultivator through the field in each direction – once north and south and the next time east and west. In this age before chemical herbicides, it was important to chop out the weeds mechanically.

I guess when I was about 12, I became the one; there were 4 of us boys who did the cultivating. We did it 4 times in a growing season.

We only planted checked corn for the crib corn.

We had my son, his wife and their two kids over yesterday. I grilled a pork loin and Ev did her usual great job on the rest.
Here is a photo of the kids and me.
Grand Kids are Grrrrreat!

Greg Comstock has been named Executive Secretary of the Red Angus Association of America (RAAA). Comstock has been the Commercial Marketing Programs Coordinator since 2003 and is one of the driving factors in the breed's growth to fourth largest in the industry. Comstock's dedication to the commercial customer, experience in advertising, marketing, leadership development and purebred sale management has helped guide the increasing demand from cattlemen for Red Angus genetics. His progressive thinking has made Red Angus Marketing Programs the envy of the industry and his commitment to Red Angus breeders and their customers has been a catalyst for increasing Red Angus market share. As Executive Secretary, Comstock will be responsible for staff development, member services, industry relations and providing visionary focus for the direction of Red Angus.

Click here to go to the Red Angus website

Commodity Prices Show No Letup
By DAVID STREITFELD and JAD MOUAWAD
NY Times

CHICAGO — Commodity prices went wild on Wednesday, with the price of corn shooting through the $7 barrier for the first time, soybeans and wheat moving up sharply and oil jumping more than $5 a barrel.

Click to read the whole article

"One Man's Pie is Another Man's Poison"
Dr. Roy Burris, Beef Extension Specialist, University of Kentucky

The argument over just how much the price of grain is affecting world food prices has reached a new level. Some contend that it is really the high price of fuel that is driving food costs upward. One report said that it couldn't be the price of grain because "there is only about six cents worth of corn in an 18-ounce box of corn flakes". We already knew that only a small percentage of the cost of food actually gets back to the farmer. However, some type of agricultural producers do have it better than others.

I was just reading a farm magazine in which a cotton producer was lamenting the rising costs of inputs like fuel, fertilizer and seed. He had to decide whether to grow cotton, soybeans or corn - all of which are at record prices. Corn prices have increased from $2.50 to around $6.00 a bushel with December futures now at $6.37. I would never begrudge this farmer making a good living but I will say that his economic situation is better than most livestock operations.

The fact is any operation that depends on feed grain is struggling unless they can pass on the costs to the consumer. According to the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), U.S. pork producers lost more than $2.1 billion in just seven months. They are now losing about $50 on each hog marketed due to the doubling of feed costs.

Cattle operations that depend on feed grain are also feeling the pinch. Cattle producers, especially those in the southeastern United States, must lessen their dependence on feed grains. Fortunately, ruminants (like cattle) have the ability to consume large amounts of forage and to convert that feed to meat and milk. In fact, that is what they are naturally adapted for and that is what they do best. We must "put the rumen back in ruminants" to be sustainable in this part of the country. Our ability to produce forages, and the cow's ability to convert them to meat, has always been our "ace-in-the-hole".

The drought and ensuing feed shortage of last year should have taught us a couple of valuable lessons. One is that purchased feeds can be very expensive and the other is that improved pasture management systems can really pay off.

What can we do now? First, practice rotational grazing for more efficient forage utilization. Then, look at ways to extend the grazing season. Try to have something to graze during July and August. Fescue is pretty much dormant during that period of time. Summer grasses can be of benefit for both grazing or making hay. They will add some flexibility to your feeding program. You can also work on the end of the grazing season. Consider stockpiled/accumulated fescue pasture for December and January or beyond. Our goal should be to graze at least 10 months of the year. You won't likely have much pasture in February and March so you should have an adequate supply of hay available.

Backgrounding operations can work on a combination of forages and by-product feeds to lessen their dependence on feed grain. We need to get ourselves in a position where we don't have to compete with ethanol production and the world's food supply to obtain cattle feed. Forages and by-products can allow us to do that.

This is the last day of school for our two oldest grand kids.
We had 2.5 inches of rain here on Wednesday and Thursday. It was wlcome.

AVMA Launches Animal Welfare Web Section

To help veterinarians and the general public understand the complexity and passion behind animal welfare issues, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has launched its first web section devoted entirely to animal welfare information.

Click here to visit the new AVMA Animal Welfare web page